WAUKEGAN, Ill., Sept. 26 -- Outboard Marine
Corporation today announced that David D. Jones, Jr. has agreed to
become its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Mr. Jones has worked in the marine engine industry for more than twenty years.
His last position in the marine industry was as the President of the Mercury
Marine Division of the Brunswick Corporation, a position he held from December
1989 to August 1997. Prior to that, he was employed as Vice President and
General Manager of the Force Outboard Division of U.S. Marine for four years.
Mr. Jones has B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from North
Carolina State University.

"We are delighted to have David bring his strong managerial, motivational and
team-building skills to the new Outboard Marine," said Alfred D. Kingsley, the
new Chairman of the Board of Outboard Marine. "We are very confident that David
will successfully lead the management of Outboard Marine and return it to
profitability."

Outboard Marine is a leading manufacturer and marketer of marine engines, boats
and accessories.

This story resulted from his interviews with Jones and Kingsly the night of the announcement of David Jones as the New Leader of OMC

Sometimes, when a stock-market operator tries to become an
industrialist, the exercise turns into a kind of Waterloo. The result is a
lost battle with years of aggravation and little or no return on the
investment.

Think of Henry Kravis and RJR Nabisco, or Carl Icahn and Trans World
Airlines.

And now that Alfred Kingsley, Mr. Icahn's onetime lieutenant in his
1980s raiding days, has wound up an owner of Outboard Marine,
Wall Streeters are wondering whether the beleaguered
boat-and-engine company will turn out to be his TWA.

"God forbid," says Mr. Kingsley. He and his eminent backers from George
Soros's investment firm put up $325 million this month to buy Outboard
shares tendered at $18 apiece, topping a $16-a-share bid by Roger Penske's
Detroit Diesel.

Last week, having already hired a new chief executive for Outboard, Mr.
Kingsley gave an upbeat talk to Outboard's dealers at a big marine trade
show in Chicago. Speaking in a packed ballroom, the Soros group's Richard
Katz said, "We're absolutely committed to restoring Outboard to
profitability."

The Soros firm won't say how it ended up in partnership with Mr.
Kingsley, a gunslinging activist investor who has earned notoriety in
recent years by fighting with company managers at Woolworth,
Unisys and the former U.S. Shoe, now owned by Italy's Luxottica
Group.

Through his Greenway Partners, based in New York, and affiliates, Mr.
Kingsley runs some $700 million, counting the Outboard investment. His
style is to sink 10% or more of his portfolio into a single stock, then try
to persuade the company to break itself up, though he says that isn't the
plan for Waukegan, Ill.'s Outboard. "We're going to stay with the boat
business," he says.

Some think Mr. Kingsley bought Outboard only to bail out his original
purchase of two million shares at $17 or so, which would have shown a loss
if tendered to Detroit Diesel. Indeed, Mr. Kingsley has acknowledged, "We
didn't know we'd have to buy the whole company -- but we're very happy we
did." According to the tender documents, his Greenway funds will have
around $80 million of equity in Outboard; the Soros firm, a whopping $192
million. That would give the latter a majority stake through two big Soros
funds, dedicated to so-called strategic investments, that have performed
unevenly in recent years.

Analysts say Outboard might have fared better with Detroit Diesel, which
could have assimilated Outboard's engine unit into its own and perhaps sold
the boat business, which has fallen on hard times.

Raiders and buyout professionals often yearn for the respectability that
comes from running a company hands-on. Thus, Mr. Icahn bought TWA in 1988
-- and took it through bankruptcy court a few years later. Mr. Icahn, who
didn't return calls seeking comment, is said to blame Mr. Kingsley for that
nightmare, but Mr. Kingsley says, "It's stupid to ask who was to blame for
[the decision to buy] TWA."

By comparison, a spokeswoman for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts points out, RJR
Nabisco fared better than TWA, though it was "not a good investment" for
Mr. Kravis's clients.

Mr. Kingsley is credited with having forced laggardly U.S. Shoe into
Luxottica's hands two years ago. But another activist, Guy Wyser-Pratte,
claims he did most of the work after Mr. Kingsley's efforts to break up the
company failed.

While running Outboard, Mr. Kingsley has to look after Greenway's stakes
of $100 million-plus in each of Unisys and Woolworth; both stocks have
given him a rocky ride. He also owns a sizable chunk of Inland
Steel Industries. He started buying Unisys in April 1995 in hopes
of forcing a breakup. He didn't succeed, but the computer company has
restructured. While Mr. Kingsley takes credit for some of the changes, a
Unisys spokesman says, "Our decisions were based on what we believed was
right for the company." Now Mr. Kingsley must fix Outboard's finances. Carl
Lindner's American Financial Group is providing temporary financing of $150 million,
but that sum must be repaid in nine months, says an American Financial
spokeswoman.

"Bankers are coming to us. We will recapitalize Outboard," says Mr.
Kingsley. "You're going to see a first-class company coming out of this.
I've been around a long time on Wall Street. Don't knock us so bad."

RBBI comments - its interesting that the Wall Street Journal article makes absolutely no mention of the announcement of David Jones as the new OMC president when that was the major event of the night (and probably of the whole show). Perhaps they do not want to get involved in the legal issues that raises? The acquisition of Jones should have major impact on Greenway's marine leadership capabilities.